The striker is expected to leave Atletico Madrid in favour of a switch to the newly-crowned Ligue 2 champions at some point during the close season, and the ASM coach believes the Colombian will be the perfect player to build their project around.

"Who wouldn't want a player who always scores? We hope he can join us. That way we can start building for the future," he told Sky Sports.

The principality side beat Le Mans 2-1 to secure the Ligue 2 title on Friday, having already won promotion back to the top flight and Ranieri made it clear that they want to challenge for top honours again right away.

"Our objective now is to play in the Champions League. Why would we not be able to make it into Europe again next season?" he told France Football.

"We will now have to build a very strong team, because there are plenty of good opponents in Ligue 1. We have to focus on Ligue 1 first.

"The main thing for now is to build a new team. We have some big plans, but we don't want to talk about specific transfers. There is a great project going on at Monaco."